A happy coincidence - yesterday I was in a small Korean/Japanese market that had open bins of Korean fried fish cakes (the more common 5"x7" rectangles 1/8"+ thick and 6"x3" oblong ones a bit less than 1/2" thick). They were cold and fried, but NOT breaded. I grabbed a couple of the thick ones because they looked interesting. Came home and consulted The Oracle (web) to find some options for cooking them. I did my usual find-a-few-people's-take-on-them, then tweak it to suit what we had in the fridge. It ended up super yummy!
If you've had this in a Korean restaurant, it was probably part of banchan (those small bowlfuls of various tasty bits that automatically come to your table). I've upped the veg:fish cake ratio and made it more of a main dish.
Serves 2
2 Korean fish cakes (eomuk) [the OracleAI said that 100 g (one cake) has 25-30 g carbs; that seems roughly correct based on my blood sugar]
1 T vegetable oil
1/2 large onion, thinly sliced pole-pole
1 garlic clove, minced
1 small carrot, julienned
half a package of beech/shimeji mushrooms (optional)
2-4 scallions, cut in1" long pieces
2 T soy sauce
1 T rice wine
1 t sugar
1.5 t gochukaru (Korean chili flakes)... I'm sure you could also use gochujang
Mix soy sauce, rice wine, sugar and gochukaru in a small bowl (you want to hydrate the gochukaru a little).
Bring an inch or so of water to boil in the skillet you're going to use for the stir fry. Dunk the fish cake in the water for about 30 seconds and drain (this warms them and removes a bit of oil). If you have the thicker cakes, cut them into strips about 1/2"x2.5"; if you have the thinner cakes, cut them about 1"x2".
Heat oil in skillet over medium-med/hi heat. Add fish cake and stir-fry (let them sit in the skillet a minute or so between stirring) until golden (I focused on the cut sides of my thicker cakes). Add onion & garlic and stir-fry a couple minutes. Add rest of veggies and keep frying (turn down the heat if needed to prevent burning) until they're almost done enough for your taste. Pour sauce over top and stir-fry another minute until everything's coated and glistening. Top with sesame oil and sesame seeds.
